The World Conference on Education

11 Pages 2711 Words

One of the winning entries of the Poster Competition organized by the World Summit on the Information Society, in collaboration with the UN Cyberschoolbus: Lau Hei Tung, 10, China.
The human right to education is well established, in principle if not in practice, and is described in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and elaborated in Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Similar provisions are set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, primarily in Articles 28 and 29. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights' General Comment 13 provides an authoritative interpretation of its implications.1 Yet, we repeatedly see high aspirations defeated by the lack of resources devoted to education. It seems that funding is never adequate despite the clear evidence on the value of education.

The World Conference on Education for All, held in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990, spelled out the aspirations in "The World Declaration on Education for All", known as the Jomtien Declaration, and also produced the Framework for Action to Meet Basic Learning Needs. The results are familiar: "These recommendations largely failed to generate the response needed to meet the growing demand-supply crisis in basic education."2 The issue persists, as Special Rapporteur on the right to education Katarina Tomasevski and her fellow advocates keep coming up against the same problem.3 This is most severe in poor countries, but even countries that do have money often fail to give education high priority in their budgets. Perhaps a reconsideration of the way we think about the right to education would open new opportunities.

Many different parties share responsibility for the realization of human rights, but the primary obligation falls on national governments. They have obligations to respect, protect and fulfil human rights. The requirement to fulfil includes the obligation to facilit...